Kouroussa

Coordinates: 10°39′N 09°53′W / 10.650°N 9.883°W / 10.650; -9.883
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Kouroussa
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Kouroussa or Kurussa (

Malinke
culture, and is known for its Djembe drumming tradition.

History

Kouroussa represented the southern end of the

Côte d'Ivoire) became powerful to the south and east. The Mandé state around Kouroussa, called in some periods Hamana and in others Koumara, continued as an important trade center and small regional power, squeezed between these forces.[2]

Colonialism

The first known European visitor to the town was the French explorer René Caillié, who passed through the area in June 1827 on his journey to Djenné and Timbuktu.[3] In his book Travels through Central Africa to Timbuctoo published in 1830, he wrote:

Courouassa [Kouroussa] is a neat village, surrounded by a mud wall, from ten to twelve feet high and from eight to ten inches thick. It contains between four and five hundred inhabitants. ... the inhabitants are called Dhialonkés [Dialonké], and are chiefly idolaters. They do not travel, but occupy themselves peaceably in the cultivation of their little fields, which are fertilised by the inundations of the river.[4]

By the arrival of Europeans, Kouroussa was a major trade stop between the Niger River valley and the coast, with the so-called "Leprince" overland route running from the coast via Kindia, Timbo, and Kouroussa.[5]

In the late 19th century French forces appeared in the region just to the north, establishing bases at

Samori to the south. From here French forces raided areas controlled by Samori, even launching raids from here into the British territory of Sierra Leone.[7] By 1895, even while fighting with Samori continued, the French had set up a school to train local workers to identify, collect, and prepare wild rubber for French industrial purposes. Kouroussa became a regional center of rubber requisitions (often instituted as a tax in labour), which peaked in the second decade of the 20th century.[8] Kouroussa was administered as part of the Siguiri Cercle, which also included Kankan.[9]

The French, after annexing the Futa Jallon in the 1890s, added the region to the colony of French Upper Guinea, later a part of French West Africa, until Guinea's independence in 1959. During the colonial period the town was made a main trans-shipment point for commodities coming from French Sudan (today's Mali) due to the construction of the Guinea-Niger railway, which met the river at Kouroussa in 1910, and from which rainy season ship transport could reach Bamako.[10] As well as a collection center for wild rubber, the French encouraged the collection gold sifted from streams and dug by local small scale mines. The French also attempted to promote local farming of groundnuts and cotton. There remains a monument to René-Auguste Caillié in Kouroussa, erected by the French.

Contemporary history

In 2001, Kouroussa was one of several places which was particularly hard hit by flooding, and became a center for thousands of internally displaced people from the surrounding area.[11] In 2005, Kouroussa was rocked by major protests against the government, particularly aimed at Kouroussa Prefect Charles Andre Haba who was accused of embezzling local mining revenue. The town was reported at the time to be a center of the opposition Rally of the Guinean People (RPG)[12][13]

Population

With an estimated population of just over 10,000, Kouroussa functions more as a services and transport center for the surrounding agricultural region than as a metropolitan center in its own right.

Culture

The majority of the surrounding population comes from the

Muslim religion. Kouroussa and the surrounding region is the centre of the Hamana-Malinke Mande sub-group -- "Hamana" being the name for the region, while the Malinke are the major Mande speaking ethnic group of the upper Niger valley. There are also sizable minority communities of Fula and Dyula
, the latter traditionally forming trade communities in towns like Kouroussa.

The writer and intellectual Camara Laye (1928–80) grew up in Kouroussa, and his memoir, L'Enfant noir (The Black Child), is in part about his youth in the town.[14]

Kouroussa and surrounding towns maintain the pre-colonial Mande ceremonial kingship of Hamana, with the most recent holder of the office King of Kouroussa King Sayon Keita I.[15]

Kouroussa is about 50 km SW of the Mandingo cultural site Gberedou/Hamana.

Traditional music

Hamana-Malinke are especially known for their unique musical traditions, especially their

dununba drum and the long kenken bell.[18]

Economy

Transport

With its position near the upstream limit of navigation on the Niger River, Kouroussa is an important center of transport and trade. The Guinea Railway crosses the

metre gauge Niger – Conakry rail line runs 588 km to the capital of Guinea, with a branch of 74 kilometers running from Kouroussa to Kankan. It was built by the French, using African labor, in the first two decades of the 20th century.[21]

Agriculture

The Savanna climate in the region around Kouroussa support a wide range of subsistence and cash crop farming, producing rice,[22] groundnuts, onions and millet for sale, as well as supporting larger scale cotton farming and cattle ranching by both locals and semi-nomadic Fula people whose largest local center is in the nearby Fouta Djallon highlands.

Mining

Major mining companies are engaged in ongoing exploration drilling in a series[23] of government granted Gold mining concessions[24] near the town.[25] The Kouroussa area also has a long history as a center of small scale gold mining, which continues in so called "Artisanal Mining"[26] Recent criticism has surfaced around the working conditions, pay, and the widespread use of child labour in these small gold mines, and the method which middlemen, many based in Kouroussa, purchase and transport gold. Gold collected in Kouroussa is sold on—with almost no regulation or oversight—to larger merchant houses in Bamako, Conakry, and eventually to smelters in Europe.[27] Large scale Titanium mining has also been proposed in the Kouroussa area, with both Dredging of Heavy Mineral Sands from rivers and streams and dry pit mines proposed as of 2007.[28]

Notable people

See also

References

  1. ^ "Guinea". Institut National de la Statistique, Guinea, accessed via Geohive. Archived from the original on 24 November 2015. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
  2. ISBN 0-582-64547-6
  3. ISBN 978-2-84498-137-0
    .
  4. ^ Caillié, René (1830). Travels through Central Africa to Timbuctoo; and across the Great Desert, to Morocco, performed in the years 1824-1828 (Volume 1). London: Colburn & Bentley. pp. 248–249.
  5. ^ New International Yearbook: A Compendium of the World's Progress, Dood, Mead, & co, New York (1915) p. 274
  6. ^ Auguste-Louis-Charles Gatelet. Histoire de la conquête du Soudan français (1878-1899). Berger-Levrault, Paris (1901). pp. 146, 184-87
  7. ^ Gatelet, 189-191
  8. ^ Gatelet, p. 494. For the colonial era wild rubber collections, see: Emily Lynn Osborn. 'Rubber Fever', Commerce And French Colonial Rule In Upper Guinée, 1890–1913. The Journal of African History (2004), 45: 445-465
  9. ^ Gatelet, op cit., 506, 509
  10. ^ William Basil Morgan, John Charles Pugh. West Africa. Methuen, 1969. pp. 271, 587, 593.
  11. ^ GUINEA: Up to 70,000 affected by floods, 21 September 2001 (IRIN)
  12. ^ GUINEA: Two hurt in anti-corruption protest 9 September 2005 (IRIN)
  13. ^ West African Seasons, Tuesday, April 11, 2006. Personal account of the 2006 tensions from Peace Corps volunteer Hilary Heuler, based in Kouroussa
  14. ^ G. D. Killam, Ruth Rowe. The Companion to African Literatures. Dover (2000). p. 57
  15. ^ The Sanimuso Foundation, "Artisanal Mining Association" Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine, 2006.
  16. ^ Mögöbalu: Les Sages, les Maîtres Archived 2008-03-11 at the Wayback Machine, Website retrieved 2008-09-03
  17. ^ World Music Central:Famoudou Konaté, 2008.
  18. ^ Serge Blanc. The Djembe: The Dunun[permanent dead link], 1997, retrieve 2008-09-03.
  19. ^ UNESCO: readings of Niger at Kouroussa, 1945-1979 Archived 2006-01-06 at the Wayback Machine.
  20. ^ geonames.org: Kouroussa.
  21. ^ New International Yearbook: A Compendium of the World's Progress, Dood, Mead, & co, New York (1915) p. 274
  22. ^ listing for FAO Rice Agriculture development centre, Kouroussa.
  23. ^ afdevinfo: Kouroussa Exploration Area Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine
  24. ^ The Kouroussa Project Archived 2007-09-09 at the Wayback Machine: Cassidy Gold corporation.
  25. ^ Cassidy Gold Set to Resume Drilling at Kouroussa Archived 2016-01-13 at the Wayback Machine Business Wire, Jan 18, 2005
  26. ^ The Sanimuso Foundation, "Artisanal Mining Association" Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine, 2006.
  27. ^ Kids working in African gold mines[permanent dead link]. AP/RUKMINI CALLIMACHI AND BRADLEY S. KLAPPER – Aug 10, 2008. [dead link]
  28. ^ Guinee Titanium Archived 2011-07-11 at the Wayback Machine, date 2007, retrieved 2008-08-03.

10°39′N 09°53′W / 10.650°N 9.883°W / 10.650; -9.883

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